Reliance Jio to deploy new submarine cable systems: report

The Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio will be deploying two submarine cable systems that will provide direct connectivity to the top content hubs worldwide, and the deployment is set to boost India’s data availability, an ETT report cited an industry source as saying.

The India-Asia-Xpress (IAX) will connect Mumbai and Chennai to Singapore and interconnect with other Far East countries towards the west coast of the US, while the India-Europe-Xpress (IEX) will connect Mumbai to Europe and interconnect to the east coast of the US.

The two cables are expected to be operational in two years or early 2023.

The undersea systems would offer direct access to global innovation centers and content hubs to deliver low latency and high reliability necessary for cloud and platform-driven digital applications and services, says the report.

The proposed submarine system through multiple branching links, according to the privy to the matter, will provide options to extend the connectivity with other southeastern Asian destinations, covering the Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean, the Middle East, Northern Africa and other locations in the Mediterranean.

The IAX and IEX systems will provide more than 100 Terabit per second (Tbps) of capacity at transmission speeds of more than 100 Gigabit per second (Gbps), and would employ the latest wavelength switching and intelligent rerouting to ensure rapid upgrade and flexibility to switch waves across multiple locations.

Jio’s submarine system, a part of its digital ambition, would also allow global platform and service providers to board the mega program as consortium partners.

In 2017, Jio deployed AAE-1 submarine system, a 100 Gbps technology-based submarine system, stretching over 25,000 kilometres connecting major data centres in three continents with partners such as China Unicom, Etisalat, and Omantel.

The submarine systems will be the first in India to align with open access principles rather than the traditional closed framework, and provide flexibility and scalability.

The development is expected to facilitate consumers, businesses and startups which are increasing adopting cloud-based services and with fifth-generation or 5G-based network around the corner, the systems are expected to bring digital transformation in India.

Multinationals such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon have been spending hugely on such systems.

Currently, there are nearly 1.25 million kilometers of submarine cables in service through 375 consortium systems worldwide.